Archives for: April 2004

Every cold has it’s own little personality. This one has stuck itself right in my nose. I can’t wait till I can breath again! I feel like a little snot-nosed kid. More often than not, my colds will want to travel quickly down the chest so I’m coughing a lot. Not this one, yet.

Okay, so the energy level has been down a bit, too. I managed two Pilates sessions this week, but no aerobics. Just got back from a mat class. It wasn’t too bad. It was the two hours before the class that there was a lot of fighting going on in my head. The good little voice kept encouraging me and telling me to go to class. The bad little voice….(and I’m thinking of borrowing this Norman fellow idea from Rachel)…..kept saying things like “I’m really tired and lethargic” and “I don’t think I feel well enough to go” and “It’ll be okay to rest up just one more day”. Very gentle nudging to ditch the class. But “good little voice” won today. And I don’t feel any the worse for it.

The weather has been top notch, should be in the 80’s tomorrow. I have an afternoon golf game worked up with some girlfriends. Let’s hope the energy level comes up a bit.

Well, the chorus competition was a success. Our chorus came in second place for mid-size chorus and third place overall. That was the best that we could hope for and we were all very happy and excited about it. We beat out our archrivals from a city to the north, too. And that was sweet, too.

It is a two-day competition. On Friday the individual quartets compete. That lasted five hours, as there were 22 quartets to get through. Our chorus had two quartets competing, but neither was able to get into the top five. Saturday there were 14 choruses competing. So, then, the top winning choruses and quartets performed Saturday night in the Show of Champions. We were pretty tired by then, so didn’t do as top notch a job as we could have. But it was fun anyway. Then after that were drinks and lots and lots of singing in the hotel all night. People just stopping in the hallways and singing with gals from other choruses. Then trotting along to the next group. I think it was near 3AM when we crawled ourselves to bed.

I would have even had more fun, if that darn cold I was starting had stayed away. After Wednesday’s dosing of vitamins and whatnot, I woke up Thursday feeling pretty good, and foolishly stopped the extra vitamins. Friday evening the sore throat came back with a vengeance. By Saturday morning I knew I was in trouble. I had to go to the drug store to get OTC remedies (decongestants) just to make it through the days activities. I would rather not have taken them, but I wanted to enjoy myself. So, it was a deliberate decision and I know I will pay some consequence for it. The plane ride home Sunday didn’t help the situation. By the time we landed, my nose was so completely blocked I could hardly swallow. Today I am still quite congested, and stayed home to rest. Have been dozing in my chair while watching movies. It is 80 degrees and sunny outside, and I have no energy to move. Drat it all!!

So, once this is over, I will once again pull myself up by my bootstraps and get back on track with diet and exercise. Right? Right!

The chorus is getting all geared up for this weekend. We are off to Spokane for the annual regional competition. We practice all year to get on stage for six minutes and see who comes out on top. There are fourteen choruses competing this year from Alaska, Washington and Idaho. It was my first experience in it last year, and it was great fun. A big hotel filled with middle-aged singing women. We dress up in look-alike fancy costumes, wear big hair and false eyelashes and really, really red lips! We had a dress rehearsal last night, and it sounded pretty good from where I was standing.

But wouldn’t ya know, I woke up this morning with a scratchy throat and a dull headache. Have felt pretty out of it all day. I made it though a board meeting this morning, a Pilates session this afternoon, followed by a hot rock massage. (Boy, was that ever great!) Came home and took a handful of proberry capsules, a couple of ester-c’s, some oscillococcinum and some respiratone. I surely hope I’m not going to come down with something just before this weekend!

I think I will take some food reinforcements with me to the competition. Last year it was pretty near impossible to stay compliant eating hotel and restaurant food. Plus, all the other gals bring stacks and stacks of the dreaded munchies. I’ll bring Boomibars and some of those Real Bars that Amanda suggested in one of her blogs. I ordered the Real Green bars, and they are definitely edible.

How many times do we help move our young adult children? Until they are young no more? Our daughter moved from our house today for the second time. She has spent the last year living with us while getting herself out of the massive debt she got herself into the first time she moved out. We moved her three times during the year she was out on her own. Of course, her poor father carries the brunt of all this heavy lifting and renting trailers and he does a superb job of keeping his patience during all of the hubbub. That was the extent of my exercise today. Humping boxes and bags from house to trailer to new house. I guess I can’t count that for real exercise, though.

It’s been a lazy weekend other than that. I was trying to get the energy yesterday to start working on getting all the plants potted up for our patio garden. Was very tired yesterday. I was just pooped after my aerobic workout. So, I puttered around enough to avoid getting my hands dirty. Hope to get it done sometime this week. All the elements are there. Pots, plants and potting soil. All I need is incentive and for the weather to clear up a bit. I need to check my juicing book for a spring tonic. I have been overly tired for more than week now. I am getting lots of sleep, and I’m not being too terrible about straying from the diet.

I find it intriguing that I can go several days in a row of compliant eating and exercising, and can’t think of a single thing to blog about. Then, when I eat some bad stuff, I can’t wait to tell you all about how horrible I’ve been! So, here goes.

Yesterday hubby and I had to go to a trade association meeting just south of Seattle. We hardly ever get up to the ‘big city’ any more. The traffic is pretty horrendous most of the time. Anyway, since we were so close to the city, we decided to go on up after the meeting and have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. It’s called the Dahlia Lounge. The owner also has two other restaurants in Seattle, and has written several cooks books. Excellent food and presentations. They bake their own breads. And that was the first downfall. I had only eaten a Boomibar all day and was very, very hungry to say the least. So, we dived into the basket of bread (A). Then hubby ordered potstickers (A) for appetizer, which I shared.

Salad was sautéed beet greens ( with sliced raw beets ( orange slices (N) and blue cheese (A). The entrée was venison ( on a bed of quinoa (N) with broccoli ( prepared with a butter sauce (N) and anchovy’s (A) (I could barely detect the anchovy). He ordered dessert, and I took two teeny-tiny bites of cake and just a taste of the ice cream. Okay, four avoids, four beneficials and three neutrals. I suppose it could have been worse.

While driving home, I could feel my nose start to plug up from the wheat. Today I have just been dragging around. I had every intention of getting on the rebounder and treadmill today. Talked myself out of it this morning, and then was really too pooped to do anything when I got home from the store.

I am looking forward to tomorrow when I have a chance to redeem myself. Hopefully the rain will stop and there will be a round of golf waiting for me in the afternoon!

Easter weather was phenomenal today! It reached 84 degrees, which I’m sure will be a record. Will have to check the newspaper tomorrow. Usually this time of year we are having rain and temperatures in the mid-50’s. Of course, now there is quite a breeze blowing and the clouds are moving in, so we should be back to normal weather by tomorrow. But it has been a great weekend. I played golf both Friday and Saturday. Because my leg muscles aren’t quite up to the snuff of climbing hills and pushing a 25lb bag of clubs around for 5-plus miles, I am feeling quite stiff in my lower back today. I decided to baby it today and take a day off from exercise.

Hubby, daughter and I took advantage of the weather today by going for a nice long motorcycle ride. It was great to see all the spring flowers and trees as we flew along. The other two are the ones that ride the motorcycles. I just ride on the back of my husband’s bike. I tried to learn how to ride. In fact, I’ve taken a Motorcycle safety class twice. But failed miserably both times. I just can’t get the hang of it. The clutch is in your left hand, the throttle is in your right hand. The shifting gear is in your left foot, and it is all very frightening to me when you are trying to learn this with a heavy moving vehicle underneath. It’s probably a good thing I failed. I’m perfectly happy riding behind.

Anyway, Easter dinner isn’t going to be anything special. The other two are going to eat pork chops (eew!). And I’m having leftover lamb stew that I made earlier in the week. Very compliant, and it is quite delicious. We will enjoy watching our recording of the final round of the Masters this evening.

Just for a lark, I took a test on Yahoo to determine what my REAL age is according to my state of health and my habits. I was actually a bit disappointed. I turned out to be only two years younger than my chronological age. Of course, the test was really geared toward the medical model standard measurements of health. The test determined that even though I eat enough fruits and vegetables, it was recommended that I eat more grain servings (I try not to eat any grains at all). And I definitely need to cut down on my red meat consumption (NOT!).

Anyway, it’s a fun test at www.realage.com. Even though you have to log on with an email address, they haven’t sent me an email in two days, so it seems that they won’t bombard you with ads unless you want them to.

I’m looking for inspiration to get myself more disciplined about getting rid of these few extra pounds. I’ve hunted everywhere. Can’t seem to find any. So, I guess I will just plod along berating myself for lack of self-control until INSPIRATION turns up. Ack!

Only had one minor blip on the food scene over the weekend. My daughter and I went down to the Performing Arts Center to see an off Broadway production of The Music Man on Sunday evening. It was a terrific performance. Very much like I remember the movie. They did a very stirring and patriotic finale. Anyway, we were both starving afterwards, as we hadn't had dinner yet. There are virtually no restaurants in this town that stay open after 9:30 or 10:00 on a Sunday night. We ended up at Denny's. I would have gone home and eaten some leftovers, but I always do what my daughter wants. I never eat at Denny's, but I did this time. I'm not even going to embarrass myself by telling you what I ate. Just be sure that it was 75% avoids. And still today, I don't feel up to snuff. Feeling kind of draggy and foggy. I'm hoping a couple of cups of green tea will keep me going through the day. I have a board meeting and rehearsal tonight after finishing up here at the store. Bedtime seems so far, far away from now.

Three days of being compliant and good exercise have gotten those two water/wheat pounds off. Thank goodness! It goes to prove that wishing doesn’t make it so. You gotta walk the walk, and talk the talk, or whatever that saying is. Today I’m feeling pretty tight in my lower back, so will forego the aerobics and just do some stretching and strengthening at my Pilates session. Tomorrow will be more aerobics, and I think I have talked hubby into playing 9 holes of golf with me in the afternoon. It is supposed to be really good weather. I’d go for a whole round, but some of the barbershop gals are getting together at noon for a ‘hemming party’. All of our competition costumes must be hemmed to the perfect length. Several of us are not good at sewing. So, those that sew will bring their machines and help those of us who don’t sew get the job done. I think it’s a great deal. Such a nice group of women. Everyone is always ready to help anyone who is in need of anything. I feel so lucky to have found such a group. The singing is fun, and the sisterhood is very comforting.